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Twas the night before,
you said to me,
"The night has a thousand eyes"
I was blind and could not see.

A resident in Memory Care has left us.
I remember her, not because of her personality,
but because she was always asking me to assist her.
I don't work there, but it didn't matter.
at least not to her.

She would gesture using her fingers and hands,
to call me over. I would politely decline and
ask an attendant to assist her.

Last Sunday, she was painting a picture using
watercolors. She was happy and
content. She passed away the next evening.
I will remember her face and her bright smile.
God bless you on your journey.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

They may look like modern mechanical dinosaurs, but they are enormous swiveling eyes that watch the sky. The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) Observatory is composed of four 12-meter reflecting-mirror telescopes surrounding a larger telescope housing a 28-meter mirror. They are designed to detect strange flickers of blue light -- Cherenkov radiation --emitted when charged particles move slightly faster than the speed of light in air. This light is emitted when a gamma ray from a distant source strikes a molecule in Earth's atmosphere and starts a charged-particle shower. H.E.S.S. is sensitive to some of the highest energy photons (TeV) crossing the universe. Operating since 2003 in Namibia, H.E.S.S. has searched for dark matter and has discovered over 50 sources emitting high energy radiation including supernova remnants and the centers of galaxies that contain supermassive black holes. Pictured in June, H.E.S.S. telescopes swivel and stare in time-lapse sequences shot in front of our Milky Way Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds -- as the occasional Earth-orbiting satellite zips by. Surf the Universe: Random APOD Generator

Video by Jeff Dai (TWAN), H.E.S.S. Collaboration; Music: Ibaotu catalog number 1044988 (Used with permission)

I would like you to talk to me,
like we used to do.
I need you more, now,
for I still love you.

What you are to me,
you were yesterday.
My first true love,
I love and I pray.

You are the light,
you are my soul.
I'll always love you,
as that is my role.

Flowers have grown leggy,
spilling over the side of the pots.
Can't cut them back as the
season moves into Fall.

I'm finding myself,
getting bored with many
of the activities for residents,
who need to be
guided into doing something
that is regulated.
Not for me. I'll write or go
for a walk, stop and talk with
others and water the garden.

I'm not here to do crossword
puzzles. I am here to listen to
music.

A sadness, creeps up on me,
as I think about all the times,
we lived together. The little
things, now big, differ.
Sleeping with each other, in
the same bed, for 66 plus years.
Now I haven't slept with you since
November 22. No room in the hospital
bed and at this point, neither of us
would sleep well. Saddens me.

I spent 6 hours with you today and
you slept. You awoke briefly, several
times and looked at me but didn't
say anything. Is this all that
is left of our wonderful life, together?
Appears to be. Now I would like to have
you pain free and happy.

"The idea of food as medicine dates back to the ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates, and a new study adds to the evidence that a diet full of fruits and vegetables can help improve heart health. The research comes amid an epidemic of diet-related disease, which competes with smoking as a leading cause of death"...  More at NPR ➜

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

The last full moon was doubly unusual. First of all, it was a blue moon. A modern definition of a blue moon is a second full moon to occur during one calendar month. Since there are 13 full moons in 2023, one month has to have two -- and that month was August. The first full moon was on August 1 and named a Sturgeon Moon. The second reason that the last full moon was unusual was because it was a supermoon. A modern definition of supermoon is a moon that reaches its full phase when it is relatively close to Earth -- and so appears a bit larger and brighter than average. Pictured, the blue supermoon of 2023 was imaged hovering far behind a historic castle and lighthouse in Syracuse, Sicily, Italy. Gallery: Selected August 2023 supermoon images submitted to APOD

Photo by Kevin Saragozza

Lamps are dim,
lights burning low.
I'm in a local bar,
no place to go.

I don't wish to drink
not even have a few,
for where I am,
there is nothing to do.

Don't want to shoot pool,
not good enough to,
I want to go home
and to be there with you.

There no longer exists
a memory of the past.
I sit with my beloved,
holding her hand, fast.

I do this for her
but also, for me,
for I know I'm losing her,
and my time will no longer be.

When she leaves this world,
full of anguish and pain,
then it will be
only I who remain.